Targus Awakens

By giant30

Today was the day I've been waiting on for a long time, my son Jake and I were finally able to go on that camping trip he's been wanting to go on for weeks now. My name is Paul, Jake's mother and I are divorced, but he's been living with me because my now ex wife is unable to care for him.

I told Jake to go get his clothes packed while I went to grab the tents, fishing poles and everything else we'd need for our trip. Jake and I got in the truck after getting packed and drove to the spot we had picked out beforehand to camp at.

When we got there, I got Jake to help me unpack everything, he is such a good kid, never gives anyone any trouble when he's asked to do something. Our spot we chose was near a cliff, which was fenced off so no one would fall over the edge, out in the distance was a range of huge mountains, making for a very relaxing scene.

That night, my son and I were sitting around a campfire I had built, when he asked me to tell him a story. I chose one that my grandfather had told me when I was a child, the story was of a colossal giant who lived inside a mountain that guarded a village from an evil dragon.

My son enjoyed the story, then looked up at me as I got up to take him to his tent for bed.

"Is the giant real?" Jake asked me.

I chuckled lightly, "No son." I replied, "There's no such thing as giants, those are just in fairy tales."

"It would be neat to see one." Jake replied, "I wonder what that would be like?"

"Who knows." I told my son with a smile, "Maybe someday you'll see one."

I put Jake to bed, then went back to put the campfire out. As I was making sure everything was put away, and the campfire was out, I looked in the campfire pit, when a mysterious shape began to appear, an apparition of an old man appeared.

"Targus is coming." the apparition whispered, then just as suddenly disappeared.

At first I thought I was seeing or hearing things, I went inside my tent, which was right next to Jake's in case he needed me, then eventually I drifted off to sleep, though I wondered who this Targus was the old man spoke of. Little did I know, that the next day, my son and I would find out just who this Targus was.

The next morning, my son and I were rudely awakened by an earthquake, it wasn't a bad one, but it was bad enough that it woke both of us up. My son and I shot out of our tents, meeting each other outside.

As Jake and I went outside, we were about to begin breakfast, when we heard what sounded like a moaning noise, which was very deep, and echoed through the air, it sounded far away, but whatever it was that made it, it sounded very very big.

The next thing Jake and I knew, another earthquake struck. We looked out into the distance at the mountain range, which before our very eyes, seemed to begin to crumble, we watched as a great cloud of dust began to form over nearly the entire range.

After what seemed like an eternity, the dust finally settled, what we both saw, we simply could not believe. Standing where 1,000 feet of the mountain range once was, was the largest giant I had ever seen, he made the mountains themselves look like small hills.

The giant began to move, and he was headed right for us.

"Jake, follow me, we've gotta get outta here!" I yelled, then just ran for it.

I ran until I thought I wouldn't be seen, but when I turned around.... no Jake. I looked back to where our campsite was, Jake was still standing there, and by now, the giant was right there, I thought for sure my son was as good as dead.

I went back out to where I could see the giant more clearly. I looked up, but when I saw his face, I noticed he was looking down at Jake, the look I saw on this giant's face just baffled me completely.

As I looked up at this giant, there wasn't a hint of evil on his face at all, in fact, I had never seen such a gentle look on the face of anyone before. I watched as this 1,000 foot giant began to bend down to be more eye level with my son, who stood at the protective fencing of the cliff, which to my estimation, was probably waist high to the giant.

I prayed and prayed hard that the giant wouldn't hurt Jake. I heard my son begin to talk to the giant, but what was odd, was the giant would never say anything, yet Jake would talk as if he had answered everything my son asked him.

I slowly approached my son and the giant. As I did so, the giant caught sight of me, which caused me to freeze on the spot. When I froze, I figured out why I couldn't hear the giant speak, because a voice entered my mind saying, "Your son will not be harmed."

I looked up to the giant, "Did you just speak to me?" I asked.

The giant nodded to my question, which helped me figure out that he spoke through mind communication.

"Who are you?" I asked the giant.

"I am Targus." said the giant as his voice entered my thoughts.

I have to say, speaking to a giant who communicates by mind communication is pretty neat, because I could only imagine how thunderous his voice must be if he spoke normally. I glanced over to my son, who had his arms raised to Targus.

I ducked down instinctively as Targus lowered a titanic finger to my son, but amazingly, he skillfully lowered his finger to Jake, allowing my son to give his finger a hug, I watched in awe as this mighty giant interacted with my son, his gentle demeanor just blew me away.

Now that we had met Targus, was there anything we had to watch out for? Were there any other people out to get him? any dangers we had to be aware of with such a huge giant around? All we could do was wait and see, but lucky for us, Targus would show both of us that we were more than safe with him.

While my son and I were talking to Targus, I happened to look out to the east at the sky, and saw angry storm clouds approaching. Suddenly, a huge gust of wind swept through our campsite and rain began to pour down ferociously.

The next thing Jake and I knew, our world went black as Targus domed his hands over us to protect us from the weather, our tents had been blown away by the wind, so Targus was our only protection from the elements.

Once the storm passed, Targus lifted his hands away, letting us see the light of day again.

"Are you alright?" I heard Targus say as his voice entered my mind.

"Yeah, we're fine Targus." I replied.

Targus smiled at us, then cupped his gargantuan hand level with the edge of the cliff. Jake and I climbed the fencing, then stepped onto the enormous hand. Targus cupped the hand we were in ever so slightly, then we felt him begin to walk.

In as little as five steps, Targus had brought us to a beautiful clearing. In this clearing was an abandoned cabin that was next to a camping supply store, but how did he know it was here? We didn't even know! He must have a psychic ability of some sort.

Targus lowered us to the ground, where we jumped out of his hand. Going inside the store, Jake and I were able to buy all new camping supplies. We went up to pay for them, but the cashier told us to take them for free.

"We can't do that." I told the cashier.

"Yes you can, Targus told me what happened, please, take them, they're on the house." the cashier said with a smile.

I looked to the cashier confused, "You know Targus?" I asked

"Yes." the cashier told me, "We met before he was put under a spell by a witch who came here from where he came from, she imprisoned him in the mountains, she is out to get him for reasons even Targus himself doesn't know."

I felt bad for Targus, we had to do something to protect him, especially since he had done so much for us. Jake and I took our supplies out to rejoin Targus, who helped us get back to our campsite to get set up.

As night fell once again on our campsite, Jake and I stayed outside with Targus until we grew tired. I laid in my tent, wondering how we could help him, little did we know however, that this witch who was after him, would give us very little time to plan anything, we would have to be on our toes.

Later that night, Targus, my son and I were awakened by the sound of evil laughter, we looked up into the night sky to see a woman flying by on a dragon, this dragon being the same one Targus vanquished a long time ago in the land he came from.

"Who are you?" I shouted.

"I am Zelora." the witch hissed, "And I have come to destroy Targus!"

"You'll have to get by us to do it." I yelled.

Zelora looked at me with an evil glare, "Why waste my time on you? it is the giant I am after!"

Targus swung his mighty hand at the witch, but the dragon's movements were too swift for him to catch them off guard, Targus was then struck by a bolt of energy, which hurt him pretty badly.

"Leave him alone!" my son Jake shouted.

"Silence foolish child!" Zelora yelled, closing my son up in a glass orb.

The witch then aimed at me with her hand, "Stay back, or you are next."

I had no choice but to let Targus fight off the witch on his own. The battle was fierce, but because Targus was already injured, he could do nothing, and sadly, in the end, Zelora was just too much for him, as she rendered Targus virtually defenseless.

"I will give you one last chance to say goodbye to your friend." the witch hissed.

The orb around my son disappeared, we raced over to our injured giant friend, saying our goodbyes to him. Then suddenly, all at once, in one quick event, our once living, breathing giant, was gone, returned to the prison which had held him.

My son and I turned to vent our anger to the witch, but Zelora was gone. My son and I went back to our campsite, both of us miss our giant friend terribly, but we know in our hearts, that he is always with us.




THE END